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Daily Digest

Two Lenox Park Bldgs. in Foreclosure

Two buildings in the Lenox Park office complex are facing a foreclosure sale after the properties’ owners defaulted on a 2007 loan for $17.3 million, according to a first-run foreclosure notice in The Daily News’ Friday, July 27, edition.

Built in 1996, 3175 Lenox Park is situated on 7.8 acres on the northeast corner of Lenox Park Drive and Kirby Road; the Shelby County Assessor’s 2012 appraisal is $6.5 million. And 6625 Lenox Park, built a year later, is on 6.7 acres east of Kirby between Lenox Park Drive to the north and Knight Arnold Road Extended to the south. Its 2012 appraisal is $10.2 million.

Lenox Park, which includes seven buildings and vacant land, was bought by a subsidiary of California-based NNN Realty Advisors Inc. for $90.5 million in January 2007.

The full text of the notice is in the Foreclosures section of Friday’s Daily News and online at memphisdailynews.com.

Source: The Daily News Online & Chandler Reports

– Daily News staff

Raymond James Reports Higher Q3 Earnings

Florida-based investment bank Raymond James Financial. Inc. – the new parent company of longtime Memphis investment firm Morgan Keegan & Co. Inc. – reported higher fiscal third quarter earnings this week, driven in part by its acquisition of Morgan Keegan in April, the company said.

Raymond James reported net incomes of $76.4 million for the quarter, up from $46.8 million during the same period in 2011. Setting aside acquisition costs related to Morgan Keegan, earnings rose 8 percent to almost $90 million.

The firm earlier this year completed its purchase of Morgan Keegan from Regions Financial Corp., a move that expanded Raymond James’ brokerage force and its fixed-income business, among other things.

– Andy Meek

Early Voting Clears 40,000

Early voting in Shelby County had its highest day of the period Wednesday, July 25, as 5,597 citizens cast ballots in advance of the Aug. 2 election.

The total for the early voting period through Wednesday was 41,597 or 7.1 percent of Shelby County’s 584,377 voters. The total is more than the 38,262 early voters for the entire early voting period in the same election cycle four years ago. The current early voting period runs through Saturday, July 28.

Collierville Church of Christ remained the most popular of the 21 early voting sites. Through Wednesday, 4,681 early votes were cast there according to Shelby County Election Commission statistics.

That was followed by the 4,489 early voters at New Bethel Baptist Church in Germantown and 3,342 at Bethel Church in Bartlett. The three sites accounted for just more than a third of the total early voting for the period through Wednesday.

Early voters historically cast their votes at the site nearest where they live.

Turnout in the Democratic primaries increased by a few percentage points during the week. But more than half of the early voters – 51.4 percent – have voted in the Republican primaries and 46.3 percent have voted in the Democratic primaries. The remainder voted in the general election contests only.

– Bill Dries

HealthSpring's Expansion Adds Methodist Hospitals

HealthSpring, a Medicare Advantage plan whose parent company is Cigna, has announced an agreement with Health Choice that will add select MetroCare physicians and six Methodist Healthcare hospitals to HealthSpring’s Memphis network.

Under the agreement, effective Wednesday, Aug. 1, HealthSpring members will have access to Methodist facilities and services and select MetroCare providers at in-network rates.

Health Choice is a physician-hospital joint venture between select MetroCare Physicians and Methodist Healthcare. The agreement with HealthSpring adds MetroCare’s physicians and all Methodist hospitals except Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital to the HealthSpring network. The system also includes home health services, outpatient surgery centers, minor medical centers, diagnostic centers, sleep centers, and a hospice residence.

This addition makes HealthSpring’s network the largest hospital network in the area among local Medicare Advantage plans.

– Aisling Maki

Grizzlies, Charitable Fndn. Named Team of the Year

The Memphis Grizzlies organization and Memphis Grizzlies Charitable Foundation have been named the winner of the prestigious Sport Team of the Year for the Beyond Sport Awards 2012.

The Grizzlies received the award at a ceremony in London on Wednesday, July 25, after being named as one of 30 shortlisted organizations from almost 300 projects worldwide in early May.

The Grizzlies Community Investment team and the Grizzlies Foundation joined the Boston Celtics, Queens Park Rangers FC, Tottenham Hotspur and RIHP NTH QLD Rubies as finalists in the “Sport Team of the Year” category.

The Memphis Grizzlies Charitable Foundation presented the combined work of the Grizzlies Foundation and the Memphis Grizzlies Community Investment efforts, both of which operate initiatives and outreach to advance education and youth development in the Memphis region.

The Grizzlies TEAM UP Youth Mentoring initiative, Grizzlies Read to Achieve, and Grizzlies Healthy Home Court initiatives were highlighted in this year’s application, as were partnerships with St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, among others. More than 25,000 youth are served each year through these combined efforts and for the second time in team history, the Grizzlies led the NBA in community/marketing events in the local community.

– Sarah Baker

Contracts to Buy US Homes Fell Slightly in June

Americans signed fewer contracts to buy previously occupied homes last month, the latest sign the housing market recovery is uneven.

The National Association of Realtors said Thursday, July 26, that its index of sales agreements fell 1.4 percent last month to 99.3. May’s reading was revised down to 100.7.

A reading of 100 is considered healthy. The index is 9.5 percent higher than it was a year ago. The index bottomed at 75.88 in June 2010 after a homebuyers’ tax credit expired.

Contract signings typically indicate where the housing market is headed. There’s generally a one- to two-month lag between a signed contract and a completed deal.

Joshua Shapiro, chief U.S. economist at MFR Inc., noted that even with last month’s drop, the index has risen since January and is higher than it was in April. That could translate into higher sales of previously occupied homes in July.

One trend that is holding back sales has been low inventories. There were 144,000 new homes for sale in June, just above May’s 143,000.

– The Associated Press

Report Shows US Drought Rapidly Intensifying

A new report shows the drought in the nation’s midsection is rapidly intensifying and shows no signs of abating.

The U.S. Drought Monitor report released Thursday, July 26, shows the range of the drought in the continental U.S. has increased only slightly in the past week.

But the severity is worsening. The report shows that the amount of U.S. land classified in extreme or exceptional drought jumped to more than 20 percent, up 7 percent from last week.

More than 63 percent of the continental U.S. is in some stage of drought, a portion unseen since the Drought Monitor started in 1999.

Illinois is one of the hardest hit states. It saw its percentage of land in extreme or exceptional drought balloon from 8 percent last week to roughly 71 percent this week.